raining ktula

My new “media center”

February 2nd, 2007 by ktula

For the longest time, i have been trying to figure out a solution that allows me to watch on my TV ripped DVD movies stored on my network storage. At one point, i thought about getting a Rokulabs Photobridge HD player. But just when i was about to make the big commitment in spending some serious dough, Rokulabs withdrew the product from the market.

I bought an Xbox 360 last April. I read that Xbox 360 has the ability to play media files stored elsewhere on the network. In my few attempts to configure it, i realized that i would need a PC running Microsoft XP Media Center Edition. Xbox 360 refuses to work with anything other than a Media Center-enabled PC. The only Windows-based PC i have at home is my employer-provided IBM Thinkpad, so installing XP Media Center Edition on it is out of the question. Furthermore, i read somewhere that even with a Media Center PC, it is not easy to share ripped DVDs.

A few months ago, i got in touch with one of the visitors who left some comments on my posts about the Thecus N2100 NAS device. He brought to my attention that it is possible to use the original Xbox as a “media center” by installing the open source Xbox Media Center (XBMC). XBMC can play almost any media files imaginable and the media files can be stored elsewhere! The catch is in order to install XBMC on the Xbox, the Xbox must be modded. I thought about getting a mod chip and install it on my own but there are so many mod chips out there - i was too lazy to figure to research on one that i need.

A few weeks ago, when almost everyone in Seattle was stranded at home by the snow storm, i was looking through Seattle’s Craiglists and i noticed an ad on modding the Xbox. For $70, the guy at xboxmodmaster.com installed a DuoX 2 mod chip and slapped a ton of apps into my Xbox. I also bought a used DVD kit for the Xbox so that i can control it using my Logitech Harmony 520 remote.

I don’t care much about apps other than XBMC. XBMC works really well. I have tried ripped DVDs, WMV, AVI and Quicktime media files stored on my Thecus N2100 and it plays them with absolutely no problem. I never realized how loud my Xbox was until i started using it as my Media Center. One thing that constantly irritates the hell out of me is how loud my Xbox 360 gets. If i am playing a game like Halo 2 or Gears of War, i don’t mind the noise makes by the game disc spinning in the DVD drive. But when i am using it to watch a DVD movie or to play some media files, the fan noise is quite unbearable. I don’t understand how Microsoft can release a product that it claimed is supposed to be part of my entertainment center and yet it is by far the noisiest component of my entertainment center.

Which is why i made the decision to quiet down my Xbox. When i opened up my Xbox, i realized the noisiest components were the fan on the GPU and also the 10-GB Seagate factory drive. I followed the tutorials at xbox-scene.com to replace the heatsink/fan combo with a Zalman heatsink. Because i was concerned about the heat resulting from the removal of the GPU fan, i replaced the factory case fan with a 80-mm Vantec Stealth fan. Replacing the case fan took the most time because i had to trim down the fan and also the HDD plastic case in order to fit the 80-mm fan in the existing location. The final thing i did was to replace the extremely noisy and slow 10-GB drive. One immediate benefit of replacing the drive, in addition to the complete removal of the high-pitch whine, is a faster loading of subtitle for DIVX files.

Because Xbox’s processor runs at only 733 MHz, it is not possible to play anything with resolution higher than 480p. This limitation is really not a big deal for me because my Panasonic plasma TV can only handle up to 480p anyway. So far, i am very pleased with my modded Xbox and its upgraded capabilities.

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